Actors aren’t too different from us in that when they see themselves in photos or on camera, they are hyper-critical of their looks. We’ve all been there. Somebody takes a video of you doing something, and when you look back at the clip, you are overly sensitive about your mannerisms, your facial expressions, or the way you act. To the rest of us, it’s an entirely forgettable thing—if it’s even noticed at all. But when you watch yourself on camera, every little criticism is heightened.
It’s the same way with actors… mostly. Many of them refuse to watch the things they star in, if only because they are so embarrassed and annoyed with their own appearance in them. And others won’t watch those shows because, well, they starred in them! They already know the lines, the plot, and the themes. No need to rewatch something you saw happen the first time when you filmed it, right?
But every now and then, a rare actor comes along who absolutely loves to watch the things they starred in. Call it commitment to the craft, or maybe a touch of narcissism—or a bit of both—but when their movies hit the screens and their shows air on television, they tune in. These are the stories of ten actors who absolutely love to rewatch their own projects after filming is completed so they may bask in the glory of their job well done!
Related: 10 Actors That Are Polar Opposites from Their Characters
10 John Goodman
John Goodman has had some absolutely incredible on-screen roles. His big body (well, until he lost all that weight) and his booming voice certainly attest to it. We can’t ever see him and not think of his iconic sitcom role in Roseanne. And we really can’t ever see him and not think about what is perhaps his most iconic movie role, as the loud-mouth know-it-all Vietnam War veteran bowler Walter in The Big Lebowski. Thankfully, according to John himself, he enjoys watching that movie whenever it comes on! But not necessarily much of his other stuff.
During a press run chat for his role in the 2017 movie Kong: Skull Island, Goodman admitted to an interviewer that he actually does go back and watch some of his old movies! The key word here is “some.” He said: “Some, yeah, some I watch, and some are irritating and tedious.” Sadly, he didn’t say which ones he felt were tedious, though we’d be very curious to know about that. But he did mention two that he always watches whenever they come on television: “If it’s The Big Lebowski or Barton Fink, I’ll stay and watch a little bit, yeah.” We will, too, John! No matter how many times we’ve seen them, we will, too![1]
9 Bryan Cranston
When Breaking Bad was on television, most of Bryan Cranston’s co-stars didn’t watch the show when new episodes were released. They had filmed the episodes, the stars reasoned, and so they didn’t need to see how they turned out. Cranston felt very differently, though. He has seen every episode at least once on TV. Not only that, but he wants to watch them all again one day—with a friend or family member who has never seen the show! What better way to introduce somebody to his life’s work, ya know?
“I actually look forward to watching the whole series again with someone who hasn’t seen it who’s close to me, and it’s like, ‘well, let’s sit down,’” Cranston explained during a podcast interview. He even admitted that it would be fun to replay all the best and most memorable parts over and over again for the new viewer. What a way to be introduced to one of the world’s most famous television shows that would be—eagerly, and by the man who starred in it![2]
8 Terry Crews
Terry Crews is not afraid to watch himself on screen. In fact, he goes further than most celebrities on this list and watches himself perform in pretty much any format and venue he can get! That means watching and reliving the memories from filming his reality show, The Family Crews. But it also means re-watching his old scripted television and movie roles before that. And it means watching himself in memes and GIFs that have come to populate the internet. Seriously! But Terry doesn’t even stop there. He makes his family watch him work, too!
Speaking to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show one evening, Crews admitted that he forces his poor family to re-watch his appearance on Lip Sync Battle when he needs a pick-me-up. “I could not stop watching my own performance,” Crews bluntly admitted to the late-night host. “You know what I mean? I was like, ‘Y’all want to see ‘Lip Sync’ again?’ and my kids were like, ‘Aw man.’ I was like, ‘No, really, it’s good! Look at this part!’ My wife finally grabbed me like, ‘Give me the remote! I’m going to erase it off the DVR if you don’t stop.’” That’s a pretty funny story, but honestly… we think his wife had it right![3]
7 Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson isn’t one of those stars who hates to see themselves on the big screen. Rather, he seeks out the films he’s been in and likes to watch them over and over again. And not only that, but he likes to buy tickets to his movies for other people, too! Typically, Jackson buys $1,000 or more worth of tickets on the opening weekends of his films and then gives those tickets away to his church and other friends. He even prefers to watch his movies in theaters with real folks—and not just at premieres with other actors and Hollywood people—so that he can gauge the honest reaction of the public after the film.
“I watch them at home; I go to the theater,” Jackson explained in an interview on the Graham Norton Show once. “I know, when I have a movie that’s opening, it’s going to make at least $1,000 that weekend because I buy $1,000 worth of tickets. I give them to the church, or I give them to somebody, and their kids go.”
He also watches his movies at home when they pop up on television! He added this reveal to Norton, too: “If I’m sitting at home and if I’m channel surfing, there’s nothing else on, I go into the search engine and go, ‘Samuel Jackson.’ Boom. It’s the truth.” That’s a pretty wild revelation. But if we had Samuel L. Jackson’s acting talent, we might do the same thing![4]
6 Keanu Reeves
Of all the stars who enjoy watching their past films and productions, Keanu Reeves’s reasons for it are perhaps the most profound and sentimental. Rather than just watching the films to enjoy his own acting talents, Keanu looks back at old movies with one intention: to recall the memories and enjoyable times he had behind the scenes during production. He enjoys thinking back to where he was at that point in his life and what his world was like. And more often than not, the walk down memory lane gets him smiling again.
“Watching old films from the past, it kind of is, for me, like thinking about the memories of making it,” Reeves admitted in an interview once. “It’s kind of like a photo album, so it takes me back to the people that you worked with or the experiences of making it. And once in a while… especially with a certain amount of time between the performing of it and then watching it, you know, you can go, ‘Oh yeah, that movie was pretty good.” In our opinion, he’s been in a lot of movies that we can say that about![5]
5 Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino was once asked by radio shock jock legend Howard Stern to pick his favorite movie of his own that he ever made. And the legendary filmmaker didn’t hesitate to levy a surprising (or maybe not so surprising) choice on the radio DJ: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino may have picked pretty quickly. But just because that was his favorite of his own movies, it doesn’t mean that he’s one of those stars who doesn’t go back to watch his other films, either. In fact, Tarantino very regularly watches the movies that he’s made. He’s proud of them, and he enjoys them, and he wants to see how they come out on the big screen.
“I love them,” he told Stern. “I love my movies. I’m making them for me, everybody else is invited. Anytime my movies are on the TV, I’m like, ‘Oh hey! Now I’m watching Jackie Brown for a while.’ I’m very happy with my work.” Honestly, that’s probably how we would react, too, if we made movies. After all, what’s the point of doing all that work if you’re not going to enjoy the finished product, right? (And not to mention, but if YOU don’t enjoy your movie when it’s done… other people probably won’t, either!)[6]
4 Ice Cube
Funny enough, Ice Cube watches all of his old movies—but he doesn’t want anybody to know it! Instead, it took actor Jonah Hill to call him out on it once before that fact bubbled up to the surface. According to Jonah, he was once on a flight with Ice Cube and their 21 Jump Street co-star Channing Tatum when the duo noticed that the rapper was watching one of his old films. They figured it out because they saw Ice Cube watching something and hysterically laughing. But for the longest time, they couldn’t figure out what he was laughing about! Until they finally walked by and saw that the gangster rap aficionado was tuned in to Friday and loving every minute of it!
“We walked by the computer screen, we walked by to go to the bathroom, we looked, and he’s watching Friday,” Hill admitted to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. “He was watching his own movie. He couldn’t get enough of it.” Jonah and Channing couldn’t get enough of it, either, and they found themselves laughing very hard at how much Ice Cube was laughing at his own past acting performance.[7]
3 Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston starred in the sitcom Friends for a decade. And she came out of the show as perhaps the most well-known of its six main characters. She was so popular throughout the ’90s, in fact, that women started going to their hairstylists and asking for the “Jennifer Aniston” cut to look just like her! So it makes sense that she would want to relive her old glory days from time to time by watching past episodes of Friends. Every now and then, when an old episode comes up, she happily takes the time to watch it and think back to the memories she made while on set acting in it.
“I have to say that when I’m channel surfing, whenever I do watch television, which is not often, but if I land on it, I do stop and watch,” she shared during an interview a few years back. “Absolutely. It’s very nostalgic. It makes me laugh. It always made me laugh. When we were shooting it, we would laugh; we couldn’t get through it half the time. That was something great to be able to do for 10 years—just laugh.”
Then, in 2020, she put her money where her mouth was, as they say! During an interview with Variety, the longtime actress had a mini Friends reunion with former co-star Lisa Kudrow. The duo went onto YouTube to look for old episodes of their sitcom and watch a bunch of compilation clips that had been uploaded by fans. Truly feeling the nostalgia of their time in the spotlight and their run in primetime television—and carrying a lot of pride through it all![8]
2 John Boyega
John Boyega may have had the break of a lifetime when he got involved with the Star Wars franchise. And so it would make sense that he loves to rewatch the Star Wars films as often as he can—including the ones he’s been in! But it’s not exactly what you think. See, he’s not watching the movie to reminisce about his own performance. It’s more that he wants to see all the other scenes in the movie that he wasn’t around to film. He’s fascinated by how they came together and what the story looks like. So, when those movies hit theaters, he wants to be a part of the viewing experience!
“I’m not just interested in my performance because there’s a whole bunch of the film I actually don’t get to experience,” Boyega once said in an interview. “So, I like watching all of it. I like to see the visual effects come together and all that stuff. You judge yourself on the first watch, but I feel like the more and more you watch it… you get to experience it in a much more natural way.” Makes sense to us. There is a lot of a movie that actors don’t get to see if they are only asked to show up to film their own scenes![9]
1 Kaley Cuoco
Even though she hasn’t been on that show for years now, and even though it’s been more than two decades since it first premiered (time flies!), Kaley Cuoco still rewatches 8 Simple Rules on a regular basis. For her, it’s not only a show that she loves to watch because of the fond memories she has of filming it, though. There’s also the emotional side of things—namely, her time working with the late John Ritter early in the show’s run before his sudden and tragic passing. In that way, rewatching the show allows her to think back to her time with John and how much he lit up the set with his personality.
“Once in a while, if it is on in the background, yes,” Kaley admitted to Us Weekly about deciding to rewatch old episodes. And she does that on a very regular basis! “Once in a while, I peek at it, and it brings me a lot of fond memories. Especially when we do the Three’s Company episode. That is still something that gets me to this day.” We can only imagine what it’s like seeing the much-respected Ritter alive and well on screen in that sweet moment stuck in time. No doubt it makes her emotional every time she sees it![10]